But the sportswriters have got it right this week, finally elevating Michigan to #2 in the AP Poll, just in time for their final test (Iowa, if they still qualify after this week’s humiliating loss to Indiana) before the lay up lane of games (Indiana, Northwestern and Ball State) leading up to the enormous and much ballyhooed (you can picture the ABC tv execs licking their lips with egegiously early Corso and Herbstreit mention of an undefeated Michigan at OSU) November 18 showdown.

All season long, the #2 ranking has been something of a landmine. Each #2 so far has lost in short order (Texas, Notre Dame, Auburn, Florida) and fallen from National Title relevance. Again, the only test remaining before Michigan/Ohio State is Iowa, who looks to be crumbling right as Michigan is surging. No matter the 17-10 score, going into Happy Valley at night, dispatching the starting and backup QBs, and holding the Lions to -14 yards rushing is a big win. The game was never really in question. Michigan’s on a roll, and if I were Kirk Ferentz I wouldn’t show Drew Tate the tape of this game. The D Line is ferocious. Anthony Morelli can attest (if he even knows what day it is).

*I for one, am disappointed that Florida lost. Of all the teams out there, they seemed the best competition outside of Ohio State/Michigan for the National Championship. Now, should the winner of Ohio State/Michigan finish unbeaten, who will be left to play that team for the Nat’l Campionship? USC? WVU? Louisville? Gulp. Florida is better than all of those teams combined and it would have been nice to a see a worthy matchup like that in the Championship game. Still I’m getting ahead of myself, and either WVU or Louisville will lose, and I think USC probably will too against Cal or Oregon.

*Switters and I were debating about the fate of John L. Smith after State turned a pretty numb performance against OSU in East Lansing on Saturday. Switters said, fire him on Monday, in the middle of the season. I say, give him a chance to rescue this season. If he can do that, resurrect a team that has basically quit since the 4^th quarter against Notre Dame, he’s a miracle worker and must have some coaching promise. Sparty can win out and go 8-4 and make a bowl game, that’s a respectable season and if you look at the state of the program right now, a big victory. So to the Administration at State, give him the rest of this season. If he can make bliss out of this shit, he’s still worth something. If they’re as done as they look now by the end of November John L. gets pink-slipped.

*Iowa and NC State both lost in almost identical fashion on Saturday and not even separated by ten minutes. I was flipping between both games and saw first NC State, then Iowa, throw picks to end promising, last-minute drives and lose the games just when it felt they’d both pull it out. Crazy.

*I think all the rage and frustration that must have been building behind the Zen-like face of Dan Hawkins and his beleaguered Buffaloes, was exercised on Saturday against a supposedly decent Texas Tech team that was rendered helpless against a furious CU team. A win like that is cathartic, and no doubt made up for some of the humiliation they’d amassed in building Colorado’s longest losing streak. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season goes for the Buffs.

*For the first time in a while, Boise State turned out to be a bad bet, giving up 28 points and 526 passing yards to NMSU. The spread was 26.5. Turns out Boise State's defensive coordinator, Justin Wilcox, is a pussy when it comes to pressuring the QB and would prefer to drop his LBs in coverage all day and let a lame team hang around. He's also really young for a DC, so maybe we can chalk it up to inexperience. But please, think about a pass rush. Ian Johnson wasn't bad for the Broncos, notching 192 rushing yards and 4 TDs. With that kind of output, the spread should have been safe. Yet, here I am poorer for my faith.

*Notre Dame had a bye week and I didn’t miss them at all.

switters: jeez

i didn't know mario had surgery

Sent at 10:17 AM on Wednesday

nastyb: yeah

bummer

if you read the blog everyday you'd have known

i'm on top of shit

switters: right

i understand

i wish i was on top of it

nastyb: you're mind's elsewhere

switters: mostly on the tigers

and "work"

nastyb: yeah

anyway if michigan can get through the next two games without him, they should be okay

switters: yes

for sure

nastyb: the games after that are the cupcake tour

before The Game

switters: dude

we have

indiana/minnesota/illinois/northwestern

so awesome

first two home second two away

at illinois

tough

nastyb: zook's team is a beartrap

just ask sparty

switters: haha

i guess if you're terrible, that's true

nastyb: after iowa,

michigan's got

northwestern, ball state and indiana

switters: wow

don't they have 4 games?

nastyb: the 4th game is ohio state

switters: hmm

nastyb: and no week off either

switters: right

nastyb: i think "ball state" is the "week off"

but the same could be said of indiana

switters: ha

yeah

we just had that

with BG

nastyb: anyway

i don't think you beat penn state with deep bombs anyway, so i'm thinking we won't miss mario that much

psu plays a lot of cover defense

that deep throw smith had was just a plain miracle

Sent at 10:34 AM on Wednesday

switters: yeah

i wouldn't say "miracle"

i don't think god helped with it

i'd say a great play by a great athlete

nastyb: troy smith didn't thank god after the game?

switters: i'm sure he did

but he does after every game

nastyb: there you go

switters: we can get philosophical if you want, but troy smith is a great athlete

nastyb: agreed

switters: chad henne could not make that play

nastyb: he wouldn't have to

switters: with the help of jesus or not

how come

ohio state has a better o-line than michigan

nastyb: they'd have got the play off before the pocket broke down

Sent at 10:42 AM on Wednesday

Speaking of whom, as my brother would say, Tim Tebow’s “got minerals” and he looks like the real deal. I don’t know what minerals have to do with anything, but the sentiment is agreed upon. Particularly, you can see “real dealness” in his now-famous “jumpshot” touchdown pass, or the de rigeur ten yards he picks up on his draws even though everyone knows it’s coming. Minerals indeed. I think Tim Tebow gets enough iron in his diet. It’s scary for the rest of the SEC that he’s only a freshman.

But before we crown Florida let’s see if they can ride it out as the #2 team in the country (I still can’t fathom the USA Today Coaches Poll persisting with USC at #2, so I will henceforward disregard that poll). So far this season this has been the most dangerous ranking in the Top 10. Texas got beat as #2 by Ohio State. The following week, Notre Dame held the coveted #2 and promptly learned the drill in the clinic Michigan put on in South Bend. Still not convinced?

Just ask Auburn.

Auburn, I think, wasn’t taking Arkansas too seriously. I can’t blame them. I’d actually been planning a ‘Where Are the Now’ post on former Boise State coaches, lampooning their relative lack of success compared to the sustained ascendancy of their former program. This would apply to Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins and Houston Nutt at Arkansas. But after this weekend, I may have to table this for a while since it takes three to establish a trend (rhetorically at least) and Nutt just excused himself from the kid’s table with the biggest win of his career.

On the strength of a daring offensive game plan (which included a rare, crouching fumblerooski) and stout defense, Nutt walked into Jordan Hare stadium and handled Auburn like a drunk uncle disciplining his bratty nephew. At the same time, Arkansas asserted its hold on the SEC West. They’ve still got to beat LSU in Little Rock(?), but have set the table for a big match up in the SEC championship game. One question for Nutt, though, where was this team against USC last month?

Finally, maybe the SEC West isn’t that good? Brian at MGoBlog expands in his latest BlogPoll.

Back to the Coaches Poll, the curse of #2 may well apply here as well since I foresee a tough road ahead for the USC Trojans. After two tests in a row to the middling Pac 10 schools from Washington, Cal must be licking its chops. Oregon’s got a fighting chance. And maybe Notre Dame is for real after all. The end of USC’s schedule is starting to look a little much for this team as it’s currently playing.

Michigan’s Passing Attack, which they strategically hid for the first two games of the season, is simple: Touchdown Bombs. Henne was 11 of 17 for a few under 200 yards, but tossed 3 TDs in the process (2 to Manningham, 1 to Arrington). This is textbook establishing the run to setup the motherfucking deadly pass. When Michigan can run for 250 + yards, teams have to sell out to stop Hart et al, but then within 40 yards of the end zone they’re in position to score with Henne Bombs to Mannigham and Arrington.

*Was I wrong about Cal or wrong about Oregon? I think mostly it’s that I jumped on the bandwagon after Cal’s loss at Tennessee. But now, I think they’re a dangerous team.

*Georgia’s finally running out of borrowed time.

Wake Forest +17 Hosting Clemson - my friend who's a Clemson fan writes:

thats a tough call. in years past I would say definitely take Wake... we always seem to play down to Wake, especially in Winston Salem, but Clemson is trying hard to make a name for themselves this year. we've put up more than 50 points in three games so far this year and are averaging over 40 points a game right now. that being said, we lost our Senior RB a week or so ago (our 2 best are a freshman and sophomore though) and one of our top receivers broke his foot in practice this week and is out for 4 to 5 weeks... so I'm inclined to say take the Deacons +17.